Bank NXT, the Egyptian retail and corporate lender majority-owned by EFG Holding, has extended its processing relationship with Network International, migrating its ATM and debit card portfolio to the Dubai-headquartered firm’s end-to-end platform. The announcement, made in Cairo on 12 October 2026, positions the move as a core component of Bank NXT’s infrastructure modernisation programme, with the stated goals of tightening security controls and accelerating the rollout of new digital services.

The bank, formerly known as aiBANK, operates 37 branches across Egypt and has been expanding its ATM network. Its paid-up capital stood at EGP 9.9 billion following a board-approved cash increase in August 2025. EFG Holding holds a 51 per cent stake, with Egypt’s Financial Services and Digital Transformation Sub-Fund holding 25 per cent and the National Investment Bank holding 24 per cent.

Tamer Seif El-Din, chief executive and managing director of Bank NXT, said the migration would allow the bank to introduce new services more quickly and support its expansion agenda. “Migrating our debit card and ATM portfolio to Network’s robust processing platform will enable us to achieve greater operational efficiency, introduce innovative services faster, and ultimately, provide a secure and digitally advanced banking experience,” he said.

Egypt’s digital payments push

The partnership sits within a deliberate national policy context. The Central Bank of Egypt has made payments digitalisation a formal priority, pushing financial institutions to modernise legacy infrastructure and broaden electronic payment acceptance. Egypt’s relatively young population, high mobile penetration and a large unbanked segment make the country one of the more consequential emerging markets for payment infrastructure investment in the Africa and Middle East region.

Network International operates across more than 50 countries and counts more than 250 financial institutions among its processing clients. Dr Reda Helal, group managing director for processing, Africa and growth markets at Network, described the deal as part of a broader strategy to deepen the firm’s footprint across the MEA region. The company was taken private following its 2023 acquisition by a consortium led by Brookfield Asset Management and Francisco Partners, removing it from the London Stock Exchange where it had traded since 2019. That ownership structure gives it access to capital for platform investment that publicly listed peers must justify quarter-by-quarter.

Competitive and regulatory read-across

End-to-end card processing is a competitive and commoditised segment, with regional and global players including Fiserv, FIS and Mastercard‘s processing arm competing for bank outsourcing mandates alongside regional specialists. The commercial logic for an Egyptian mid-tier bank is straightforward: outsourcing ATM and debit card processing to a specialist avoids the capital expenditure and ongoing technology maintenance of running proprietary switching infrastructure, while giving access to updated fraud and security tooling that regulators increasingly expect.

The next milestones to watch are the pace of migration, whether Bank NXT pursues further infrastructure partnerships as it opens new branches, and how the Central Bank of Egypt’s ongoing digitalisation agenda shapes procurement decisions across the wider Egyptian banking sector.

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